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The course takes a closer look at the white savior genre as a site of reproducing hegemonic cultural narratives of race and ethnic relations in U.S. American society past and present. Although the narrative trope of the white savior has featured in US American literature as early as the 19th century and – since the 1960s – in American movies, it has enjoyed increasing popularity in the past two decades with the publication of novels such as S. Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees (2001) and K. Stockett’s The Help and the release of movies like Dangerous Minds or 12 Years a Slave. Based upon a closer look at the origins of the genre and its specific versions in U.S. literature and film, in a first step, the class discussion will explore the aims and functions of white savior narratives as they are informed by and reflect (white) public and academic debates on race, racism and racial identity in U.S. American society. In a second step, we will analyze continuities and discontinuities with regard to the thematic concepts (morality, white supremacy and paternalism) and narrative strategies (storyline, character constellation, conflict, narrative voice) in selected literary and visual representations, including K. Stockett’s The Help (2009) and H. Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (1960) as well as Pocahontas (1995), Dangerous Minds (1995) and Avatar (2009). In a final step, we will identify and evaluate the impact that these texts (as manifestations of the white savior trope) have had on the exclusion of minority voices in terms of articulating their perspectives on U.S. American history.
Course requirements include regular and active class participation and one in-class presentation.
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